First Cello Concert

In January, Erik started on a cello program via the school and has been attending weekly cello lessons.

 

He had his first concert. All of those cellists are first time players, so it was a very interesting rendition of 'Twinkle twinkle little star'. It is so cool to see them all play!

 

The biggest challenge has been the daily practice. There are just so many shiny things to distract him.

 

Gardening Bliss

 

It has been a rainy spring, so there were many days that I couldn't get outdoors to garden. But we have had a few sunny days over the weekend and today, so I have finally started to tackle long overdue gardening chores

 

For the last few years I haven't done as much gardening as usual, party thanks to the divorce and its aftermath, and partly because I expected to sell this house, and why put in a vegetable garden if someone else is going to eat the results anyway.

 

But I am back to gardening! Of course, it means that the yard has been mostly ignored (beyond lawn mowing) for a number of years, and let's just say that you can tell.

 

My vegetable garden had morphed into a 'display of native grasses' as someone cleverly had labeled it, and it turns out that these native grasses are very fond of the garden space and not at all willing to be evicted. I dug up one bed, and am working on the second one now.

 

I have quite some bulbs, but I realize that I want way more bulbs and spring time flowers, another project which had been put on hold thanks to the Great House Selling Quest. I am already mentally planning where I can put more bulbs in the fall.

 

Anybody knows what is a good time to transplant day lilies? I wonder whether it's too late in the spring to do it, or whether I can risk it. I guess they tend to be pretty indestructible, so I might just do it and hope for the best.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there. Who take care of the children day after day, night after night, and seldom get recognition for their hard work. Hope y'all had a wonderful mother's day!

 

Sylvia brought me breakfast in bed, toast from homebaked bread, yummy! When I came downstairs, I was totally surprised by a CLEAN living room, island, kitchen including sink. Wow! That is the way it looked for showings, only for showings I would have had to work hours to achieve this level of perfection.

 

Jane and Erik baked awesome cookies, Dawn made fiddleheads, yum! I did some lawn mowing and some gardening and we went to our local ice cream place, which always opens at Mother's day. Jane and Sylvia helped pay for the ice cream. A great way to start summer!

 

I took Sylvia to the swimming pool and swam some laps, which I had been wanting to do for ages, but life kept happening. While I had momentum, I even signed up for the 50-miles swimming challenge club for the summer. Yes, I must be insane.

More gardening, and then off to the play ground for a nice relaxed time, meeting with some other mothers. When I came back I mowed more of my lawn, dug up more of my veggie bed, found 87 rocks, and did some forsythia pruning.

Jane made dinner. It was an AWESOME mothers day!!!!

Montreal

We went to the French market, and then spent some time in this cool park. We ate strawberries, and when we were eating them we had a meeting with a shaman. He was a very nice and interesting person and said insightful things about some of the kids. He told us about living on the top of a mountain and watching the animals, like the mice and the deer.

 

We had a wonderfully long talk with him and when we said goodbye he taught us a namaste ritual. It was based on a Mayan ritual. We all were holding hands and thanked Mother Earth and Father Sky. Very powerful.

 

After all that we needed nourishment and found this wonderfully cool cupcake place Les Glaceurs.

 

I will let the pictures speak for themselves here. Try not to drool on your keyboard!

 

 

 

New Puppy

My friend has a new puppy.

 

She is super cute!

 

We are helping with the socialization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blackbox Theater

 

I had never ever heard of blackbox theater until Dawn performed in one. Her school's drama club put up a show in a blackbox theater. It is a kind of experimental theater, small space, not much props. It was very small and intimate.

 

In this case they put the whole show, including audience, on the stage. Very interesting way of presenting a show, I totally enjoyed it.

 

Dawn had a nice part and we enjoyed watching her perform.

 

The 'normal' audience part of the theater was totally empty. Everything happened on stage instead, which was blocked off from the audience by the curtains.

 

So cool!

 

And now I can say that not only have I heard of blackbox theater, but I even attended one ^^

My Mother

My mother in her front yard. Notice all the flowers, that is the kind of yard I grew up with.

 

Happy Mother's Day, mom!

Yes, I know it is early. So I am super organized as always (stop laughing), what can I say???

Easter!

 

Yes, I know, it has been a few weeks, but sometimes life gets in the way of posting.

 

We had a great time at Easter, dying eggs, doing an Easter egg hunt.

 

We had friends over, and there was tons of fun and candy.

 

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story. Off to bed now.